Personal Reflection on Archives

I wanted to pursue my MLIS degree after stumbling upon an archivist job posting in the Summer of 2021. It was my dream job, but I never really understood what would be involved in the role of an actual archivist or what the job would really entail. I had always thought archiving was the process of saving everything but had never given much thought to what would actually be saved. I was shocked to learn that only 2-5% of a corporation’s documents are typically saved for the archives. This made me change my whole view on what is important in a way that changed the how I think about my own personal files and documents. With digital data growing at an exponential rate, it is important to consider what is necessary and become highly organized.

I enjoyed that this class began by interviewing a working archive professional. I gained valuable knowledge from Sarah Quigley, the Director of Special Collections & Archives at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It was from her that I learned that an archivist is not a solitary job. I had always pictured an archivist alone in the archives, but she explained that the opposite is true. Archivists must have great social skills and collaborate with a variety of people. This includes showing users how to use and access collections, working alongside those in your current administration, working with other archivists by exchanging knowledge, as well as promoting archives to share how essential they are for preservation. Sarah also stressed learning management skills because these are essential to all careers in life. She herself had never learned managerial skills at school and explained that it is harder to acquire those skills on the job.

Before this class, I had never really understood the different types of archives like institutional versus collecting archives. My preconception was that university archives contained only the information important to that specific university so was not originally interested in them. The lectures in this class alongside my interview with Sarah revealed that university archives often contain the important information for their geographical location. In the case for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, they contain photographs and documents pertaining to casinos, architecture, entertainment, costume designs, mining and railroad history. It also holds global information on gaming data and statistics in its Center for Gaming Research. I am now super interested in university archives and what is contained in their collections. They often contain a region’s most important cultural treasures.

I was surprised to learn about the complexity of digitization in archives. I assumed that the future was making all records available online digitally, but this is not realistic or beneficial. It takes so much time and money to digitize materials, and they need to be properly described with metadata so they can be accessible by keyword. Copyright is also a barrier since the content of the records could be protected or nearly impossible to find out. When researching articles for the Archives in the News assignment, I came across one talking about archiving Ukraine’s cultural heritage. People from across the world have come together to archive the information contained in the government and historical websites of Ukraine. Until reading this, I had also never considered the fragility of digital information. Even though things are online and stored in the cloud, they are not necessarily there forever if the people that maintain the files are no longer able to manage them. Computers, servers, and the cloud can be destroyed or hacked. Not everything on the internet is also actively saved so there should be rules and policies in place to ensure information and data is securely backed up.

The fact that archives were so focused on use was also new to me since I often thought that preservation and saving things was more important than using them. Archivists must make difficult decisions on how documents should be handled and stored so that they can endure the hands of time.

Selection is one area I would love to learn more about. This includes selecting exactly what should be chosen for preservation. I understand that there could not possibly be any standardized rules for acquisition since people come from different perspectives and institutions have policies in place; however, it would be nice to have a starter’s acquisition guide to serve as a starting point for what could have enduring value. I would also be curious to learn about the decisions involved in what archives decide to digitize and make available online. This depends on the policy of the institution, collection at hand, and budget of course, but more theories would be valuable to learn.   

Between this class and my other this semester, Enterprise Content Management & Digital Preservation, collaboration was the theme that kept coming up. Having a network of people is crucial for learning about career opportunities and exchanging information. I really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments in the discussion each module and seeing all the different points of view. Collaboration is also important because nobody can have all the skills for every area. It is important to have different people in place for managing archives, processing collections, creating policies, digitization, creating marketing plans, social media, information technology, and many other skills. With the current trend of community-based archives, archivists can collaborate by sharing knowledge with these often-amateur archivists which will strengthen all archives in return.

This class provided me with valuable information that can be applicable to any information profession such as the selection & organization of materials, maintaining original order, and ways to describe documents so they can be found. It laid the foundation for creating institutional policies, revealed issues surrounding ethics and copyright, taught about users and their searching behaviors, ways to acquire grants and funding, and the importance of social media for promotion. These are just a few of the essential skills that can be transferred to any career in information science. Another important lesson was that of lifelong learning. With technology and formats changing at an exponential rate, it is crucial to stay current or risk falling behind. Overall, I really enjoyed this class and look forward how I can contribute to the global future of archiving.